Not all USB flash drives are created equal

October 14, 2007|By Rob Pegoraro, The Washington Post

Q. Are all USB flash drives created equal? Is $17 a reasonable price for a two-gigabyte drive, or should I pay more for a name-brand model? A. Those USB-connected flash-memory modules - known variously as flash drives, thumb drives or USB keys - have become a commodity product. Their prices have collapsed to a level that would have once seemed absurd. There are few meaningful differences in how they work and fewer still that can be discerned before purchase. The big one is size; a few thumb drives are a little too thick to fit next to peripherals plugged into adjacent USB ports. Other drives come with “U3” software (u3.com) that lets you run your own applications from a drive. That can help if you roam from PC to PC, but some readers complain that this software bogs down their thumb-drive use. A minority of thumb drives draw so much electricity from a computer that they can't be used in “low-power” USB ports, such as those on a keyboard. Unfortunately, there's no way to tell if you're about to buy one of these. If you get an error about your new thumb drive drawing too much power, take it back to the store. Q. Who and what are these people - “Spleak,” “Professor Gilzot” et al. - who keep showing up on my AIM buddy list? And who put them there? A. They're “bots,” automated chatting partners, placed by AOL and other companies. You can read short descriptions of them at AOL's site (gallery.aim.com/browse/bots). Spleak, for example, will tell you “all of the hottest gossip about your favorite celebrities!” and Gilzot can “help prepare you for the S.A.T.” Not interested in their chatter? You can boot them from your buddy list as you would any live person.